Happy Thanksgiving! Today is Charlie's 1st Thanksgiving with us! Last year her mommy and daddy were on a Cruise hoping and wishing for her, and now she's here with us! WE ARE SO THANKFUL for our precious little blessing!
We started off the day watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in bed. I got emotional watching the parade that I have been watching every year since I was a little girl with my own little girl this year. She was asleep most of the time, but I sang songs with her and started our own little tradition of watching the parade. When Santa Clause finally arrived it hit me that the Christmas season has begun and it is SO much fun to have Christmas with a little baby. I have always LOVED Christmas and now that I get to share it with Charlize, it just means SO much more!
After the parade we got ready to go to Thanksgiving lunch at Zaza and Papa's house. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast there with all the fixin's! Instead of turkey we each had our own Cornish hens which are these cute little mini chickens! It was great! At the dinner table we all shared what we are thankful for this year and it was refreshing to hear from mostly everyone that we are all thankful for family. I am so thankful to be able to be officially a part of Cory's family for a whole year now, but also to have Charlie become a part of his family. She is very lucky to have them for grandparents, aunts and uncles, and especially all of her cousins! I am so glad that she will grow up like I did with a wonderful extended family.
Speaking of extended family, next we went to my family's Thanksgiving dinner which has grown so big that we didn't even get a seat. It was a good thing that we had already eaten, so it was no big deal for us. We spent most of dinner showing off Charlie to all the people to haven't seen her since she was born. I was happy that we got to see EVERYONE there. Especially Grandma Corina who made it to Thanksgiving dinner after her stroke a few weeks ago. Grandpa Buddy said a great prayer for dinner and mentioned how lucky we are to all be together on Thanksgiving after the many things that have happened this year. I love my extended family so much and I'm glad that Charlie get's to share Thanksgiving with them too!
Overall, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we were glad to get to spend it with both sides of our family. Charlize is so lucky to have the big family that she has.
Grandma with her granddaughters and great granddaughter.
Home sweet home! Great Grandma Corina is finally home from the hospital! I am very excited that she is just down the street from me again instead of down the highway at Baylor of Irving. It was difficult to take Charlize up to the hospital to see her. In the three weeks she was there we only got to visit her three times. I wish we could have gone up there more. But now that she's home we can see her any time we want!
We got together with the family tonight to welcome her home with good food and well wishes. She has been waiting a long time to come home and she seems so much happier being with family in her home. It was nice to see her progress since the last time we saw her in the hospital. She is doing so well for having a stroke only three weeks ago. We hope and pray for even more speedy recovery while she's home.
We love you Grandma!
Charlize is 2 months today! My have the days flown by! I can't believe just two months ago she was a newborn baby! Now she is saying goodbye to her newborn clothes and moving on up to 0-3 months. Our little girl is growing fast!
Charlie has been feeling pretty crummy since last night. She's had a stuffy nose and cute little coughs all week, but today she was sneezing out big green snot. I feel so bad because I've been sick all weekend and I know that I'm definitely the one who got her sick. Today Cory and I checked her temperature and she had a fever of 102. She held it there pretty much all day so we had to do something about it. Since she's less than 3 months old she's not allowed to take infant Tylenol and the emergency clinic that we would normally go to wouldn't take her so we had to take her to Children's Hospital's Emergency Room in Dallas. It was so scary to be taking our 8 week old daughter to the emergency room. We went through all the steps of checking in and telling several different people what was wrong with her. After running some tests, they let us know that all she had was an upper respiratory virus and they gave us the ok to give her infant Tylenol to decrease her fever. We stayed at the hospital until about 1am until they released us to take her home. Charlie will have to sit it out and try to get rid of the virus on her own, but at least we know that we can now give her Tylenol to decrease her fever and make her feel better. I hate seeing her in pain and knowing there is not much we can do for her. My first time playing mommy doctor was not as fun as I thought it would be, but I'm glad that it was nothing serious. Get well soon Charlize!
I can't believe it's already been a year since our wedding day! One year ago, on November 11th, 2011 (11.11.11) we said our vows and after 9 long years of dating we officially became husband and wife! "At Last!"
This year has been so amazing! It literally has been the best year yet! It started off with the most wonderful honeymoon and then a big family cruise, a blessed first Christmas in our new home, and a happy New Year! A little too happy... we soon found out we were expecting Charlie and the rest of the year was all about the birth of our daughter and becoming parents together.
We started celebrating last night after Cory's high school reunion. I had secretly made plans to finally get our wedding video from the videographer without Cory knowing, so we watched our full wedding video to bring back the memories. Unfortunately, I've been a little under the weather this weekend, so I woke up sick this morning and our anniversary did not get off to a good start. I made Cory migas for brunch but we pretty much slept the entire day away. I was pretty upset, but like we said a year ago... in sickness and health!
I gathered my strength (with the help of some strong medicine) to go shopping at the mall with Cory and Charlie. Since the 1st year "modern" anniversary gift is clocks. I got Cory a nice work watch that he can use when he's a State Trooper. We roamed the mall and I got to buy shoes and sunglasses. I haven't been shopping for myself in months! It felt so good to shop!
We went home and got ready for our date night. My mom and dad came over to watch Charlie on our second night away from her. It was a little bit easier to leave her tonight, so maybe it will get easier with every time we leave her. It is very assuring knowing that she's with family.
We chose Charlie Palmer's as our restaurant tonight. Pretty much for the name! We wanted a fancy restaurant that we could make special by going to it every year. Out of all the 5 star restaurants in Dallas this one seemed the most special because it had the best name! And it was absolutely delish! I had lobster and shrimp corn dogs for an appetizer and surf and turf with lobster mac and cheese for my main dish. Yum! And Cory's steak was pretty awesome too! We will definitely be back next year!
It's funny because all we talked about was Charlie. We missed her so much! She has really changed our lives and made our relationship so much stronger. She's awesome! After dinner we rushed home to see her!
When my mom and dad left, we got out our wedding cake from last year and our wedding china for dessert. We had a sweet desert and I got to open my gifts from Cory. The "modern" 1st year anniversary gifts is clocks, but the "traditional" 1st year gift is paper, so Cory did both. He gave me a framed clock with our wedding photo in it and an engraving that said "Happy 1st Year Anniversary I Will Always Love You Forever 11.11.12" And also... a framed photo of our map....TEARS started streaming down my face once I figured out what it was. You see, Cory and I really loved the movie "The Adjustment Bureau"! It was a movie about two people who were very different but destined to be together in the end. We loved it so much because it reminded us that even though it seemed like we didn't fit together because of all the obstacles that got in the way of our love, we were really meant to be. In the movie there was a map of people lives and they had guardian angels to make sure they follow that map to be successful in life. The characters in the movie accidentally crossed paths and fell in love. The guardian angels tried everything they could to keep them on opposite paths, but they refused to follow the paths that were layed out for them so that they could be together. At one point in the movie they even stayed apart so that the other could be successful on their "right" path. In the end, they broke all the rules and decided to sacrifice "success" to be together in love and they broke the map. Later they found out that they were supposed to be together all along. Cory drew our map! He made it look just like the ones on "The Adjustment Bureau" but with our own paths. My path was pink and his was blue. He started from the hospitals we were born at and then our elementary school, middle school and high school where we were always in the same area but never crossed paths until the end of high school. He even drew Walgreens where he first said hello to me. Then UT and North Lake and Texas State where we went to school separately but then together when I finally joined him at Texas State. And he even drew the part where we fell apart and decided to follow the paths that everyone else had for us in order for the other to be "successful" in life, but ultimately found out that we couldn't live without each other. He drew in the Irving Arts Center where he proposed and eM the Venue where we were married and finally the map disappears as we create our own lives together on the path of the unknown.
You might have to watch the movie to really get what I'm saying, but to me this gift really meant the world to me. Cory put so much thought, time and effort into this gift of "paper" and it made me so happy that he would think to do that. He knows how much I love analyzing our long past and how much I love sentimental gifts. This was the best "paper" gift I could ever ask for. A map of our life journey together. And the assurance that now we are finally on this journey together and nothing can break us apart. Like Andie said in her "maid of honor" speech last year. "Nothing can break these two apart... they're UNBREAKABLE (Sung in the style of Alicia Keys)!"
Happy 1 year anniversary to the love of my life, Cory Taylor Countryman! This has been the most amazing year of my life and I can only imagine the blessings that are yet to come from our love!
Cory's 10 year reunion for Mac Arthur High School Class of 2002 was tonight! This is something I've been waiting for! I've always wanted to go to 2002s reunions as Cory's wife! (Ever since he graduated) And it actually happened! Plus I am in charge of my class reunion next year and I need to take some notes!
It was also our very first time to leave Charlie with a babysitter. Since we have opposite work schedules, we've both been with her at all times. Either I'm home with her, he's home with her, or both of us. So this is our first time out without her. Luckily, her babysitter is her Zaza! It's a relief to have family around instead of leaving our baby with a stranger. What better than to leave our baby with Cory's mom. We're lucky to have her around. After lots of hugs and kisses for Charlie, we finally walked out the door, as just the two of us. We haven't done that since the day before she was born. It was bittersweet. But it was nice to be going out on a date with my hubby!
We made it to the reunion a little late, but just in time to see SO many people! It was great seeing so many old friends in person and not on Facebook. Some people I forgot they existed until tonight because they're not active Facebookers and it was especially great to see them too! We had so much fun I forgot to take pictures! At the end of the night Cory and I went to our Alma Mater to take a picture of the two of us in front of the place where we first met... MacArthur High School. Go Cardinals!
Cory has been truck shopping online for some time now. He's wanted a truck since before we were married, but since we had to pay for the house, the wedding, our honeymoon, and now the baby, he had to hold back and continue driving his squeaky 2000 Hyundai Sonata with no air conditioning to work everyday. Not that we don't love that car. We went on our first date in that car, so it holds alot of sentimental value. But after eleven years of driving the same car, he's been itching for a truck! Especially since the last time we went to Lowe's we were sticking things out the window and had to tie the trunk down. We made a deal that he could by his truck once Charlie was born (because she's not aloud to ride in the Sonata) or once he got his new job. Well it turns out that both of those things just recently happened so he's been looking at Trucks constantly for the last two months. Yesterday he finally told me "I think I found my truck!" He's shown me plenty of trucks lately so I wasn't thinking that he was serious and I kind of blew him off. Since we had no plans on Saturday, after a visit from Uncle Mike and Samantha, Cory asked like he always does if we could go truck shopping. And being the busy mom that I am I usually blow that off too, but this Saturday we really did have nothing to do during the day so I said why not. Lets go look at trucks! :)
We put Charlie in the car and made our way to Plano to find this particular truck that he found online yesterday. We test drove it with Charlie in the back and couldn't seem to find anything wrong with it. It was a really good deal too, so we thought why not try and see if we qualify to finance this thing. Cory kept looking at me for approval and I kept reminding him that its his truck and his decision. We haven't had very good credit this year because of the mortgage and credit card debt from the wedding, so we didn't think we would get approved anyway. But what do you know Cory was able to get approved on his own and get an even better interest rate with me as a co-signer! I guess our credit has improved since we have been paying the mortgage on time for a whole year. I still can't believe its been that long!
So we bought the truck! Cory drove it off the lot that day as happy as can be. All of his dreams are finally coming true. He has his dog, his house, his wife, his baby, his dream job lined up and finally his TRUCK. What more could a man want?
My baby girl! I cannot explain how much I miss her while I'm at work. Today I literally wanted to race home to see my little girl! It is so nice to have someone to come home to! When Cory's going to work she's here to greet me! As soon as I see her I just want to cuddle! And it is SO nice to know that she just wants the same thing! Cory says she's been waiting for me all day and I know that it's true because I can see the relief in her face when I hold her and I can feel how much she loves me when we cuddle. Nothing can top this feeling of being a mommy!
Today is Andie's 26th birthday and we went to Red Lobster to celebrate! Charlie made Andie an Aunt this year so this is Andie's first birthday as "Aunt Andie!" And she really has earned the title this year with all she has done for me and Charlie!
Happy Birthday, Aunt Andie!
Today is Angelina's 9th birthday! We went over to Zaza's house to celebrate! We had a great lunch and played soccer with the family! We also got to Skype with baby Liam in Utah for the first time! After Lina's party we made our way over to Andie's party where we watched the Cowboys game and celebrated her 26th birthday. Charlie had a long day, but we were happy to get to spend equal time with both sides of the family! :)
